For today’s buffet of media news, we have a behind the scenes look at NBC’s Brian Williams, who can crack a joke and break a story at the same time. We also have Jeff Jarvis’ piece on how to save the media industry, and The Daily Dot founder discusses how to save the newspaper and article writing services industry by quitting it. Finally, journo icons Woodward and Bernstein discuss investigative journalism in the 21st century.

““Still, if you’re looking for it, you can occasionally see a glimmer during the ‘Nightly News’ of [the comedian] Brian Williams we’ve come to know,” writes John Swansburg. He’s found a way to inject a touch of levity into the lately all-too-depressing business of delivering the news, to elicit a smile without giving up his gravitas. That’s how finely tuned his comic instrument is.’”

“Six months ago, I quit my family’s 179-year-old newspaper company. I left not because newspapers are crumbling — though they are — but because the very thing that has made the old industry so fragile offers hope for the future of journalism.”

Jeff Jarvis: “I’m working on a talk that I hope will become the canonical link to my essential message about the business rules and realities of news. I continue to be astonished at the economic naiveté I hear in discussions of the business of news. (Look at this comment thread and and this one.) Here is my answer, the basis of a talk — to be delivered in tweets, in the model of John Paton — and a lesson for my classes. Work in progress. Thoughts so far; please join in….”

“After six months of negotiations, the Associated Press has reached what it calls a “tentative” deal with the News Media Guild, which represents about 1,200 newsroom and technology employees of the wire service.”